Shading deprived sprites.

[BlazenBeat]

I used to be a advide spriter several years ago, mostly going to FEEF, then I quit. I've decided to try and come back, and conquer my worst fear, shading. I'm so bad at shading... I've looked at pretty much every guide, in all the major FE forums, and have tried and failed, many times to try and

avoid pillow shading.

Here are some examples of the level of shading that I have so far (earlier works will make you shed tears... of blood which is why they are omitted.)

The worst shading of any of my recent mugs, (tried to do it from scratch... yeahh.... not a good idea)

Mugs:

My best shading skill yet far (most recent attempt):

Best example of pillow shading is the sword, I can't figure out how to make it seem not pillowy while keeping within the color limit.

The center area, that's not black is supposed to be chain mail, I have absolutely no clue how to shade chain mail any tips?

And here's a few battle sprites I made, I feel more confident about these, as shading is generally easier, but would still greatly appreciate any tips.

(The hair shape is a mimic of one of uther33 style I love his sprites!)

Please, any advice would be appreciated, criticism would be appreciated as well, thanks for browsing!

[Teapot]

TBH, as much as Uther appreciates the sentiment, I don't think he usually lets others "borrow" his work and style, especially things relating to his OCs. I recall him being a bit of a stickler about that.

That aside, I'm not going to lie: the shading on these things are pretty awful. I really do think you should stick with basic splice and "relearn" from there. The majority of your work is shaded too much in all the wrong places and not enough in the right places, namely along the body and forehead, where the spliced parts meet each other. The customing is rather sorry, and I don't at all recommend doing it until you've some grasp of basic lighting and shading in the FE style.